Shoe with interchangeable strap

ABSTRACT

Footwear of the type comprising an upper of the footwear and at least one strap possibly provided with decorative elements characterised in that said strap is provided with means for the removable attachment to said upper and that said upper is provided with means for the removable attachment of said strap.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to footwear provided with at least oneinterchangeable strap provided preferably with decorative elements.

The interchangeability of the strap allows shoes to be obtained withornamental qualities that are different each time without havingnecessarily to change the entire footwear with, among the otheradvantages, the consequent saving of costs for the consumer as describedherein below.

Shoes with straps provided with decorative elements, such as embroidery,elements in coloured plastic, beads, sequins, chevees, spangles, etc.,are currently already known.

In such known shoes said elements of decoration can be attached bystitching or gluing or other known means on said shoes.

The most common example of shoes of this type is constituted byso-called Mary Jane shoes or ballerina shoes provided with a strapwhereon it is possible to attach the most widely differing decorations.

Such a kind of shoes is preferably, yet not exclusively, dedicated topurchasers of a young age and of female gender, such as girls and teens,yet in some cases may also be suitable for adult purchasers.

The fashion cycles, which involve younger people in particular, forceproducers and vendors of footwear articles to change each season themodels of the shoes for sale.

Due to this need for a constant change of the models a considerablequantity of articles which have been produced in excess and have notbeen sold during the production year will be very difficult to sellduring the subsequent year.

This entails series financial damage not only for economic operators inthe sector, due to the waste of resources necessary for the productionof footwear not sold, but also for the parents of young purchasers, dueto the waste arising from the annual replacement of footwear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is therefore that of remedying, atleast in the sector of footwear, what is referred above, in particularfor that footwear provided with straps with elements of decoration whichcan direct the purchaser towards one or the other shoe according to theornament carried by it.

This object is achieved by means of the creation of footwear havingornamental qualities which can vary without having necessarily to changethe entire footwear.

More particularly this feature can be achieved by means of the use of aninterchangeable strap and of systems of attachment of this strap to theupper of the footwear able to allow the removability and therefore theinterchangeability of said strap in a simple and economical manner.

Said interchangeable strap can easily be decorated by stitching orgluing or with other known means with different elements able toembellish the entire shoe.

The colour of said strap can also be simply adopted as an element ofnovelty of the entire shoe.

Thanks to the particular features of interchangeability of the strap itis possible to solve the problems described above which are features ofthe known shoes currently available commercially.

More particularly the vendor can provide a certain number of bodies offootwear and a large variety of straps with different decorativeelements in such a way that at the end of the season a large quantity ofwhole footwear does not remain unsold, instead at most only theinterchangeable straps remain unsold.

In this way a considerable saving is obtained in the quantity ofmaterial used for the production of the footwear, in the quantity ofenergy and in the hours of work necessary for the production of thefootwear.

The present invention allows the achieving of advantages also bypurchasers who, should they intend to change the model or the ornamentalfeatures of their footwear, do not necessarily have to purchase a newpair of shoes, but can instead purchase only a new strap.

This strap, positioned on the body of the footwear in place of theprevious one, is able to provide the footwear itself with aestheticfeatures completely different from the previous ones.

These and further features of the present invention will be made clearerby the reading of the following detailed description relating to apreferred embodiment of the present invention to be seen as anon-limiting example of the more general concepts claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following description refers to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the shoe without the strap attached.

FIG. 2 a is a front view of the shoe without the strap attached.

FIG. 2 b is a view from the rear of the shoe without the strap attached.

FIG. 3 is a view from above of the shoe without the strap attached.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the shoe with the strap attached.

FIG. 5 a is a front view of the shoe with the strap attached.

FIG. 5 b is a view from the rear of the shoe with the strap attached.

FIG. 6 is a view from above of the shoe with the strap attached.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the detail constituted by the strap.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIGS. 1, 2 a, 2 b and 3 show footwear comprising a body of the shoe 1and two flaps 2′ and 2″.

Said flaps 2′ and 2″ are covered internally by two layers of Velcro (3′,3″) known in jargon as “loops”.

Also on the upper are two elements in Velcro (4′ and 4″) known in jargonas “hooks” with structure complementary to the two elements 3′ and 3″.

Said elements in Velcro (4′ and 4″) are positioned in such a way that bycoming into contact with the layers of Velcro 3′ and 3″ of the flaps 2and 2″, said flaps 2′ and 2″ remain attached to said upper 1.

FIGS. 4, 5 a, 5 b and 6 show footwear comprising a body of the shoe orupper 1, two flaps 2′ and 2″ and a strap 5.

Referring to FIG. 7, the ends 6′ and 6″ of said strap 5 are attached bystitching to two ring elements 7′ and 7″.

Referring to FIGS. 4, 5 a, 5 b, 6 and 7 the removable attachment of saidstrap 5 takes place by means of the insertion of said flaps 2′ and 2″ inthe ring elements 7′ and 7″.

Once said flaps 2′ and 2″ are inserted in the ring elements 7′ and 7″,said flaps 2′ and 2″ are attached by means of the two layers of Velcro3′ and 3″ to the layers of Velcro 4′ and 4″ stitched on the upper 1.Thanks to this mechanism the strap 5 is thus attached to the upper 1.

To remove the strap 5 from the upper 1 it is sufficient to separate thetwo pairs of layers of Velcro (3′ and 4′) and (3″ and 4″) and withdrawthe two flaps 2′ and 2″ from the ring elements 7′ and 7″.

A possible alternative embodiment to that described above comprises astrap provided with two consecutive layers of Velcro, one of the “hook”type and one of the “loop” type, at the ends.

The upper is instead provided with two ring elements attached to saidupper thanks to the stitching of suitable flaps which pass inside thesame rings.

By means of the passing inside said rings attached to the upper of theends of the strap and the subsequent folding of said ends in such a waythat the layer of “hook” Velcro comes into contact with the layer of“loop” Velcro stitched on the same strap thanks to the presence of theVelcro, it is possible to attach in a removable manner said strap tosaid upper.

In the first and in the second embodiment described above the means ofattachment of the strap to the shoe are constituted by four elements inVelcro. This solution is to be considered purely by way of an example inthat it is possible to use any other known attachment system such as forexample press studs or traditional buttons connected directly to thestrap which in this case will be provided with the relative loops.

It is also possible to use the same principle for shoes with shapesdifferent from the Mary Jane model illustrated in the drawings.

For example a similar solution can be applied to women's shoes for adultpurchasers provided with ankle straps and possibly a heel.

The ankle straps can be, also in this case, attached in a removablemanner by means of traditional buttons or press studs or by means ofbuckles or other known means.

These straps can be embellished by the application of decorativeelements and the possibility of replacing them allows a shoe to beobtained with ornamental features which are different each time.

Thus a shoe is obtained which is provided with aesthetic features whichcan vary considerably in a simple and economical manner, thanks to thechange of only the strap without having to change the entire footwear.

1-9. (canceled)
 10. An item of footwear of a type comprising an upper of the footwear and at least one strap provided possibly with decorative elements, wherein said strap is provided with means for removable attachment to said upper, and wherein said upper is provided with means for removable attachment of said strap.
 11. The item of footwear of claim 10, wherein said strap is provided with rings or other known elements for the removable attachment to said upper.
 12. The item of footwear of claim 10, wherein said upper is provided with at least two elements in Velcro attached directly on said upper and at least two flaps covered in turn by a layer of Velcro able to be attached to said elements in Velcro of said upper.
 13. The item of footwear of claim 12, wherein said elements in Velcro and said flaps are attached to the upper by means of gluing, stitching or other known techniques of attachment.
 14. The item of footwear according to claim 10, wherein said flaps are attached to the upper after passing through the rings of the strap.
 15. The item of footwear according to claim 10, wherein said upper is provided with rings or other known elements for the removable attachment of said strap.
 16. The item of footwear according to claim 10, wherein said strap is provided with at least two elements in Velcro attached directly on said strap and at least two ends covered in turn by a layer of Velcro able to be attached to said elements in Velcro of said strap.
 17. The item of footwear according to claim 15, wherein said strap is provided with at least two elements in Velcro attached directly on said strap and at least two ends covered in turn by a layer of Velcro able to be attached to said elements in Velcro of said strap.
 18. The item of footwear according to claim 12, wherein said elements in Velcro are attached to the strap by gluing, stitching or other known techniques of attachment.
 19. The item of footwear according to claim 13, wherein said elements in Velcro are attached to the strap by gluing, stitching or other known techniques of attachment.
 20. The item of footwear according to claim 10, wherein the attachment of said strap to said upper is obtained by means of buttons and corresponding loops or other known means. 